Excerpts from programmes in the week beginning December 23

Conductor, J. N. McCONOCHIE
CATHIE B. MACLEAN
(Soprano)

There are dances in each of the three acts of The Bartered Bride. The Polka is in the first act, the Furiant in the second, and the Dance of the Comedians is taken from the last act, that in which the circus troupe appears. The tunes employed are Bohemian in origin or in construction, and reflect the true surroundings of the country the opera is about. Smetana was, above all, a nationalist composer, a keen student of Czech and Bohemian folk-song, and The Bartered Bride is thoroughly native in tone and idiom. Dvorak, as was natural, had an intense affection for the folk tunes and native idioms of his country. Much of his music is influenced by them, and the many Slavonic Dances and Rhapsodies he wrote are, of course, based on them. The Dances were written originally for piano duet, a common form in those days, but afterwards scored for orchestra, in the highly-coloured, luxuriant manner that the fiery rhythms and piquant melodies call for.